Inside Macintosh: AppleScript Scripting Additions Guide /

Chapter 2 - Scripting Addition Commands / Command Definitions

/

Choose File

The Choose File command displays a dialog box like the one in Figure 2-2 to allow the user to choose a file.

Figure 2-2 A Choose File dialog box

The Choose File command is one of two commands provided by the Choose File scripting addition.

SYNTAX

choose file [ with prompt promptString ] [ of type listOfTypes ]

PARAMETERS

promptString

The prompt to be displayed in the dialog box. The prompt can be up to 255 characters long, but the standard dialog box has room for only about 40 characters. If you omit the with prompt parameter, no prompt is displayed.
Class: String
Default Value: (no prompt)

listOfTypes

A list of the file types of the files to be displayed in the dialog box. Each string is a four-character code for the file type, such as "TEXT", "APPL", "PICT", or "PNTG". If you omit the of type parameter, all files are displayed.
Class: List of strings; each string is a four-letter code
Default Value: (all file types displayed)

RESULT

A reference of the form file "Disk:Folder1:Folder2:...:Filename" for the file specified by the user, if any.

EXAMPLE

choose file with prompt "Please choose a file:" of type ¨
   {"TEXT", "APPL"}
open result

NOTES

If the user clicks Cancel in the Choose File dialog box, AppleScript returns error number -128. If you want your script to continue after the user clicks Cancel, you must include an error handler. For information about Try statements
and error handlers, see Chapter 7, "Control Statements," of the AppleScript Language Guide.

ERRORS

Error number	Error message
-108	Out of memory.
-128	User canceled.